Gareth Southgate claims he has been hushed-up by Manchester United over the injury that ruled Luke Shaw out of England Under-21s ' European Championship squad.

Southgate confirmed the surprising news on Wednesday, insisting he knew left-back Shaw was ­“medically not fit” last Friday - but he could not say what Shaw’s injury was.

The Young Lions boss, who did pick Harry Kane despite his club Tottenham’s reservations , said: “A couple of squads ago we had a couple of injuries where we talked about detail and clubs are preferring us not to go too far.

“Medically, we don’t own the players - they could go into fixtures the following week and someone could target that.

“We live in a world now with security of ­information, medical negligence - that is the world we live in. We have to be mindful that the data on things like that are owned by clubs or the individual player.

“I know, historically, we have always said, ‘He [an injured player] has a groin, he has a hamstring...’ If an individual club wants to do it, that’s fine, because they own the player and he is their asset. From our perspective, with younger players, we probably have a duty not to go that route.”

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Southgate also claimed to have made his ­decision on Shaw BEFORE Man United boss Louis van Gaal spoke out on Friday, calling for the 19-year-old to be rested and not to go to next month's tournament in the Czech Republic.

He said: “We know the situation exactly and there is no reason for us to be [difficult] with any of our clubs.”

Asked why he had picked 21-year-old Kane, who has played 52 times already this season, he said: “Harry’s fit, Harry’s not injured. Again we are mindful with selecting Harry that he has had a long season.

“We could have said ‘not the right thing’ but we think he has been a big part of this, he has been part of the dynamic of the group. We want to give him the stage to say he can do this on a big European stage and fantastic experience.”